Integrated circuits are made possible by processes which produce intricately patterned material layers on substrate surfaces. Producing patterned material on a substrate requires controlled methods for applying and removing material. For removal, chemical or physical etching may be performed for a variety of purposes including transferring a pattern in photoresist into underlying layers, thinning layers, or thinning lateral dimensions of features already present on the surface. Once a material has been etched or otherwise processed, the substrate or material layers are cleaned or prepared for further operations.
Subsequent processing operations may include preparing the substrate for operations including plating. These processes can involve stripping materials, cleaning processed layers or patterns, removing particulates, or wetting substrates in preparation for a plating process. Plating operations often use an electrochemical process for forming or depositing metal materials into trenches, vias, and other structures formed on a substrate. As device features become more intricate and compact, sufficient plating within features can become more difficult.
Thus, there is a need for improved systems and methods that can be used to produce high quality devices and structures. These and other needs are addressed by the present technology.